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Vibrations and sounds from evoked muscle twitches
1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Unviersity of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor 48109-0042.
Electromyography and Clinical Neurophysiology
|January 1, 1992
Summary
This study introduces a novel method using accelerometers to record muscle vibrations, overcoming limitations of traditional sound analysis. This technique provides reliable, artifact-free data for muscle force and fatigue research.
Area of Science:
- Biomechanics
- Neurophysiology
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Muscle sounds correlate with muscle function, including force production, fatigue, and pathology.
- Traditional muscle sound analysis is often compromised by tremor and artifacts, and uses transducer-dependent units (e.g., millivolts).
- A need exists for artifact-free, fundamental units to quantify muscle activity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a method for recording muscle vibrations.
- To eliminate artifacts and transducer-dependent units in muscle sound analysis.
- To obtain reliable, reproducible muscle vibration data in fundamental units.
Main Methods:
- Utilized an accelerometer to record vibrations from human hand muscle twitches.
- Evoked muscle twitches via percutaneous stimulation of the median or ulnar nerve.
- Recorded data from abductor pollicis brevis (APB) and abductor digiti quinti hand (ADQH) muscles.
Main Results:
- Obtained reliable and reproducible acceleration waveforms from normal adult volunteers.
- Measured latencies from stimulus to waveform onset: 5.7 ± 0.6 ms (APB) and 5.1 ± 0.6 ms (ADQH).
- Measured peak-to-peak amplitudes: 6.5 ± 2.4 m/s² (APB) and 7.2 ± 2.0 m/s² (ADQH).
Conclusions:
- Accelerometer-based vibration recording effectively eliminates tremor and artifacts.
- This method provides data in fundamental, non-transducer-dependent units (m/s²).
- The technique offers a reliable and reproducible approach for studying muscle biomechanics.